e enough there's no
light, and the door's fast. Now, God forgive me for saying so, but if
this is Little Bethel's doing, I wish Little Bethel was--was farther
off,' said Kit checking himself, and knocking at the door.

A second knock brought no reply from within the house; but caused a
woman over the way to look out and inquire who that was, awanting Mrs
Nubbles.

'Me,' said Kit. 'She's at--at Little Bethel, I suppose?'--getting out
the name of the obnoxious conventicle with some reluctance, and laying
a spiteful emphasis upon the words.

The neighbour nodded assent.

'Then pray tell me where it is,' said Kit, 'for I have come on a
pressing matter, and must fetch her out, even if she was in the pulpit.'

It was not very easy to procure a direction to the fold in question, as
none of the neighbours were of the flock that resorted thither, and few
knew anything more of it than the name. At last, a gossip of Mrs
Nubbles's, who had accompanied her to chapel on one or two occasions
when a comfortable cup of tea had preceded her devotions, furnished the
needful information, which Kit had no sooner obtained than he started
off again.

Little Bethel might have been nearer, and might have been in a
straighter road, though in that case the reverend gentleman who
presided over its congregation would have lost his favourite allusion
to the crooked ways by which it was approached, and which enabled him
to liken it to Paradise itself, in contradistinction to the parish
church and the broad thoroughfare leading thereunto. Kit found it, at
last, after some trouble, and pausing at the door to take breath that
he might enter with becoming decency, passed into the chapel.

It was not badly named in one respect, being in truth a particularly
little Bethel--a Bethel of the smallest dimensions--with a small
number of small pews, and a small pulpit, in which a small gentleman
(by trade a Shoemaker, and by calling a Divine) was delivering in a by
no means small voice, a by no means small sermon, judging of its
dimensions by the condition of his audience, which, if their gross
amount were but small, comprised a still smaller number of hearers, as
the majority were slumbering.

Among these was Kit's mother, who, finding it matter of extreme
difficulty to keep her eyes open after the fatigues of last night, and
feeling their inclination to close strongly backed and seconded by the
arguments of the preacher, had yielded to the drowsi